G20 Summit LinkStuff

by Mike Holman

Here in Toronto, we are gearing up for the G20 summit next week. I think downtown Toronto is quite possibly the stupidest place to hold this sort of event, but needless to say, they didn’t ask my opinion.

I doubt there will be any trouble at the summit. With the number of security people on hand – anybody showing so much as a protest sign, will be beaten down pretty quick. If you are planning to protest – I suggest you don’t.

Another set of great links this week.

The Oblivious Investor wrote a good post on how do you pay your advisor? He brings up an excellent point that you shouldn’t be paying your advisor continuously, if you only need an occasional checkup or adjustment.

Fabrice Taylor from GlobeAdvisor raised some interesting accounting questions in REITs’ value getting harder to see. I decided to sell my REITs a while ago because I didn’t understand their accounting very well. This article confirms my decision.

I have no idea why anybody holds any events downtown. I suppose you’ll find parking if you’re a diplomat but normal people will be SOL. Last time I went down there for the Comicon (yeah I’m a secret geek.) I had to pay $30 for 2 hours parking. The event cost $10 to get in and I got a coupon for 10$ which I used to buy a cool HHGTTG shirt that says Don’t Panic in large friendly letters.

I was still living and worked in NYC the year the republicans decided to have their convention at Madison Square Garden. What a nightmare that was (and with the amount of people who stayed home from work, the attendees didn’t get to see anything beyond mostly-empty streets anyway, which kinda defeats the purpose of having these things downtown). My husband just got his official “get through the security” pass but I’m hoping he won’t have any meetings down there. Feel bad for the people living in “the zone”.

@CC – I agree that people should be allowed to protest, but the problem with the G8/G20 is that it is a target destination for professional trouble makers who do nothing but cause innocent people to get hurt when they get in the way.

@Rachelle – Geek!

@Guinness – Yes, the people living in or near the zone are getting screwed.

I agree people shouldn’t protest at this meeting, but it is a free country.

What irks me about these protests in particular is that they’re not protesting anything specifically. People will undoubtedly have signs “Harper is a War Criminal” and “Stop the Oil Leak!”. What does this have to do with the G20?

I doubt I will see any educated protests about the topics actually up for discussion, namely financial taxes/amount of capital banks need and trade agreements between the countries.

Thx for the mention. You know that sometimes, you need to ask for a raise as well it doesn’t hurt to push your employer a little bit further. I’m still waiting to see if not asking for a raise will pay back this year… no results so far